1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic camera, more particularly to a menu displaying technique of an electronic camera that employs Graphical User Interface (GUI) enabled to enter various set items such as capturing conditions, etc. on a menu screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-261852 discloses an electronic camera provided with menu-related functions. According to the disclosed electronic camera, it is possible to set various capturing conditions such as exposure correction, light measuring method, whether to enable consecutive capturing, white balance setting, display language, etc. for capturing menu items. The capturing menu items are displayed on a liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor built in the camera. The user makes a predetermined operation on an operation block so as to move the cursor onto a target menu item and select the menu.
The menu screen of each conventional electronic camera, however, displays menu items in a predetermined (fixed) order. However, the camera is usually used in the user""s own way, which is often different from those of other users. This is why functions and set items might come to differ among users. None of the conventional cameras have coped with such the diversified tastes of users; the menu screen is displayed fixedly, so that the controllability of the camera, such as selecting of functions and changing of set items has not been easy so much.
Under such circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic camera that can realize menu related functions enabled to select functions and change set contents easily in accordance with the taste of the user.
In order to attain the above object, the present invention is directed to an electronic camera, comprising: a capturing device which converts a subject optical image to an electric signal; a recording device which records the image captured by the capturing device on a recording medium; a displaying device which displays a plurality of menu items for setting a capturing condition; a display order deciding device which decides an order for displaying the menu items; a menu display changing device which disposes menu items in accordance with the display order decided by the display order deciding device so as to change the display order of the menu items; and an operating device through which a command is entered for selecting a desired menu item among a plurality of the menu items.
According to the present invention, therefore, each user can operate the electronic camera easily, since the display order of the menu items can be changed on the GUI screen.
Preferably, the electronic camera further comprises a display order setting device which enables the user to set a display order of the menu items freely, wherein the display order deciding device decides the order for displaying the menu items in accordance with contents set with the display order setting device.
Preferably, the electronic camera further comprises a frequency counting device which counts a frequency of changes of each menu item set contents, wherein the display order deciding device decides the order for displaying the menu items in accordance with descending frequency order found by the frequency counting device.
The display order of the menu items may be switched between a free mode that enables the user to set a display order of the menu items and a descending frequency order mode that changes the display order automatically in descending frequency order. It is also possible to store predetermined display orders including the initial state at the shipping time beforehand, thereby the menu display order can be switched to a predetermined one in accordance with the user""s operation.
In another embodiment of the present invention, an electronic camera comprises: a capturing device which converts a subject optical image to an electric signal; a recording device which records the image captured by the capturing device on a recording medium; a displaying device which displays a plurality of menu items used to set a capturing condition; an operating device through which a command is entered for selecting a desired menu item among a plurality of the menu items by moving a cursor onto the desired menu item; a frequency counting device which counts a frequency of changes of each menu item set content; a starting position deciding device which decides a menu item changed most frequently as a starting position of the cursor according to a result of counting by the frequency counting device on a menu screen; and a starting position changing device which changes the starting position of the cursor for a menu display order in accordance with a decision of the starting position deciding device.
The ease of the camera operation is improved in case where it is enabled to set the starting position of the cursor (selection mark) automatically to the menu item of which setting is changed most frequently even while the display order of the menu items is kept unchanged.